You've got a great business idea, now let's protect you with a Corporation.

Make sure you're not personally at risk for your business liability.

If you don’t have a Corporation, you could be personally responsible for your business’s liability. So when something goes wrong or you have a business debt, your own personal money and assets could at risk. A Corporation helps to fix that problem.

As an owner or investor of the Corporation, you get shares that represent how much of the company you own and you’re called a shareholder. The great thing about a Corporation is that the shareholders are not liable for the Corporation’s debts and obligations. That’s a huge plus since it allows you to run a business without putting your own personal money and assets at risk. It’s also the biggest reason why Corporations are used so much.

Bring on investors, other owners, and teams into your business.

The shareholders (these are the owners and investors) can make business decisions, have management roles, and be quite active in the Corporation’s operations if they want to, all while being protected from being personally at risk for your business liability.

Grow your business.

A Corporation is separate from its owners (i.e. you), so the business can borrow money, raise money, and enter into contracts on its own. You can also easily bring investors into the Corporation, or sell the whole or part of your business. Using a Corporation will help you grow your organization, while keeping you personally safe from liability bumps along the way.

Ready to Set Up your Corporation?

Step 1:

Answer some easy questions to get your Corporation set up. It takes just a few minutes.

Step 2:

We’ll look over your answers and get in touch with you with any questions and collect the government fees for your incorporation.

Step 3:

We’ll send your incorporation to the government and corporate registry and let you know when your brand new Corporation is ready.

Step 1 of 10

Let's get your Corporation started. Here's the cost, including the Made It Legal prices and government fees.
Where would you like to set up your corporation? These are government and registry fees.*
- Alberta
- Federal
You have a choice between setting up your company as a provincial corporation or a federal corporation. An Alberta corporation is the most popular kind in Alberta, unsurprisingly. Let's go over a few reasons why you might consider a federal corporation though.

The Advantages

A federal corporation is one that is created with Corporations Canada, a department of the federal government of Canada.

There are some advantages to choosing a federal corporation. The main one is you get a little extra name protection. Your name will show up on the name reservation reports for all other provinces, which means that someone in another province will have a harder time registering a corporate name that is identical or too similar to yours.

Also, federal corporations may be better recognized internationally. That's a tad debatable, but if international partnerships are something you are looking at doing it is a consideration.

The Not-So Advantages

The added name protection is good, but it does not guarantee you complete protection for your corporation's name. To do that, you will need to have your business name registered as a trademark. Which is something you can do as a provincial or federal corporation.

Also, even though you have a federal corporation, you still need to register it in each province where you do business. Except for Ontario, each province charges a fee for that registration and the cost is roughly the same as incorporating in the province. So, other than Ontario, you generally pay the federal incorporation fee plus what you would have paid for a provincial corporation anyway. So, it's not always cheaper and may cost more.

Lastly, federal corporations must have at least 25% of their directors be Canadians. Probably not a big deal for many small businesses, but something to think about. By the way, it's the same rule in Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland & Labrador.
Digital Minute Book
- Include a Digital Minute Book for your corporation with your start-up legal records (recommended)
Every corporation needs to have a minute book with its records (something many business owners would rather not take care of!). Rather than throwing your records in a drawer somewhere, we can set you up with an electronic minute book with your by-laws and shareholder, director, and officer records.
How do you want to name your corporation? These are government and registry fees.*
- Simple numbered company
- Choose your own name
You can have a simple numbered company, for example 1234567 Alberta Ltd. There's no additional charge for a simple numbered company.

Choosing a name for your corporation is the most common way to go ahead. There is a $45 government name reservation fee.
Corporation
Price: $ 0.00

Get Advice

Let's get to know your business.
What industry is your business in?*
In your own words, what kind of business are you running?*
Do you want to put any restrictions on what type of business your corporation can do?*
- No restrictions (typically recommended)
- Let's put some restrictions on the type of business
For example, you can restrict the corporation to a certain area of business, such as the residential real estate property management sector. Keep in mind though, restrictions on business take away flexibility and may make the company less attractive to investors.
Tell us what restrictions you want to see on the type of business that can be run through the corporation.*

Get Advice

Let's go over some contact details.
What's your business mailing address?*
Street Address Address Line 2 City Province Postal Code
You also need a Records Office and a Registered Office. These cannot be a PO box. We'll use your Business Address for both of these, unless you tell us to use another.
- Use a different address for the registered office
- Use a different address for the records office
What's a registered office?

A corporation has to have a registered office. This is where official corporate law notices are generally sent, such as a notice from the corporate registry or being notified of a law suit against your company. This address will be public and cannot be a post office box.

What's a records office?

Your records address is where physical copies of your company's legal records are kept. We recommend using your business address, but you can use another address if you like. Note though that you cannot use a post office box.
What address would you like to use for your registered office?*
Same as business address

Street Address Address Line 2 City Province Postal Code
What address would you like to use for your records office?*
Same as business address

Street Address Address Line 2 City Province Postal Code
The corporate registry communicates with you through email now, such as sending you reminders about your corporation. What email address should we put down?*
We'd like to keep in touch too with legal help you can get through in less than the time it takes to finish your coffee.
- Send me messages from Made It Legal. You can unsubscribe from our messages any time by following the links in our emails.

Get Advice

Let's go over your business name.
What business name do you want for your corporation?*

How corporate name approvals work

Naming your corporation is everyone's favourite part, but there are some hurdles. Your company name will be reviewed by the corporate registry for approval. There are several things that they look for when approving a name:

1. Distinctive element: Something that makes your name different from all other corporate names out there, such as a word or location that is unique to your business.

2. Descriptive element: Something that describes what your corporation does.

3. Legal ending: The last part is called the "legal element". Allowed legal elements include: Limited; Ltd.; Corp.; Corporation; Inc.; Incorporated; and French equivalents (Limitee, Ltee, Incorporee).

Here's an example: ABC Building Supplies Ltd. "ABC" is the part that is different from other companies. "Building Supplies" describes what the company does. "Ltd." is the legal element.

You can be creative with your name for sure, but keep in mind what the corporate registry will be looking for. We will tell you if your name is not accepted and work with you to get something that will be approved.
Choose a legal ending (e.g. Inc. or Limited).*
All corporations need an official legal ending. These are the choices you can pick from.
We'll need to order a name reservation report (called a "NUANS" report) for you to reserve the business name you want.*
If your name is too similar to other names being used or doesn't meet the legal name requirements, it may not be approved by the corporate registry. If that happens, we will need to choose another name and get another NUANS Report. Since there's a government or registry fee for each report, you'll need to pay for another one if that happens.
- I understand
NUANS^® stands for 'Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search', and is an online search system that compares potential new business or corporate names to a database of existing or reserved corporate names and trademarks in all of Canada. The government requires every incorporated business to have this report when naming a new corporation.

Get Advice

We'll go over your shares now.
What kind of share structure would you like? Click the "?" icon if you're unsure.*
- Simple
- Structured
- Upload your own
What are shares?

A corporation is made up of shares, each share being part ownership in the corporation. You can have different classes of shares depending on what you need. We call this your share structure.

We offer two standard kinds of share structures:

1. Simple: your corporation will have just one type of shares called Common Shares. A simple share set up works best if you expect to be the only shareholder.

2. Structured: this is where we set you up with a few different types of shares (e.g. voting and non-voting shares and preferred shares). The advantage to having a structured set up is it will be easier for investor and tax planning later, and you won't have to pay the government fees for changing your share structure. You don't need to use the extra classes of shares if you don't want to, they can stay unused until you need them.

If you're an expert at this and have your own share structure you want to use, you can upload a PDF or Microsoft Word document for us too.
Great, let's set up your share structure. Click all the features you want to include.*
It can be a good idea to include all of these for many new corporations. Changing your share structure later on can be expensive because you need to pay the government fee for amending your corporation. If you plan on growing and adding shareholders or investors, it can be a good idea to set your corporation up with some different classes of shares now rather than paying again later.
- Voting Common Shares (required)
- Non-voting Common Shares
- Preferred Shares
Why multiple classes of shares?

Here's the general rule when it comes to shares: every shareholder in a class of shares has to be treated the same, but different classes of shares don't have to be treated the same.

Keeping voting control

You could have Class A Voting Common Shares that get to vote in your company matters (such as voting on who the directors should be). You could use these shares for the people who founded your company because you want them to have the highest control (most votes) in your company.

Then, you could have Class B Voting Common Shares. These are for your non-founder shareholders that you want to give some control in the company, but not more than you. So, you give them Class B shares and make sure they have less of them than the Class A shares so they always have less of a vote.

Paying different dividends to different shareholders

Having different classes of shares gives you more options for pulling money out of your corporation, too. Paying your shareholders on their investment is called paying a "dividend". Since different classes of shares can be treated differently, you can pay a higher dividend to one class of shares over another.

For example, you can give your founders Class A shares and pay them a higher dividend since they have put the most money and risk into the company. For other shareholders that you want to pay but not as much as the founders, you could give them Class B shares and pay them a smaller dividend.

You could also have Non-voting Common Shares for investors that you want to give shares to but not allow to vote on your company matters. This can be useful for say employees that you want to give shares to as a way of bumping up their pay without giving them control over your company.

Preferred Shares are a kind of share that is a lot like a loan - they have a preferred payback amount. When the corporation is dissolved, the shareholders with Preferred Shares get their investment paid back first out of the remaining assets of the company. Preferred Shares are also sometimes used by accountants for tax reasons. Our default set up is that Preferred Shares do not get a vote for your business legal matters.
Upload your own share structure.*
Drop files here or

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, Max. file size: 300 MB.
How would you like to handle share transfers?*
- Directors must approve any transfers first (recommended)
- Shareholders are allowed to sell their shares to others without needing pre-approval from the directors
You can make it so any share transfers (e.g. someone selling their shares to another person) must first be approved by the directors. That helps you keep control over who can own a part of your company.

Directors are the people chosen by your shareholders (the owners and investors of your company) to supervise the management of the company. Together, the directors make up the Board of Directors.

Get Advice

Lets go over your directors.
We need to set the number of directors your corporation is allowed to have. How would you like to set the number?*
- Fixed number (e.g. always 5 directors)
- Range (e.g. minimum 1, maximum 10 directors)
Your corporation needs to have at least one director. Directors are people who take care of the overall supervision of your company. Together, the directors make up the Board of Directors. Their vote is needed for many approvals, like choosing the officers of the company, approving banking matters and loans, and selling new shares to investors.

This option gives you a little more control over how big your Board of Directors can get.

This option gives you more flexibility for the size of your Board of Directors and who can be on it.
What number of directors must your corporation have?*
What's the minimum number?*
What's the maximum number?*

Who are your directors?*

First Name	Last Name	Citizenship

Get Advice

Tell us about your officers now.

Who are your officers?*

You should have at least a President and a Secretary.

First Name	Last Name	Title

Get Advice

We'll go over a couple financial matters now.
What month do you want to use for your corporation's financial year end?*
We automatically go with December unless you want something different.
You need to set a year end for your financial records. The year end date can be the same as the calendar year (December 31st) or some other date. Most corporations use December 31st.
Let's go over your corporation's auditor.*
- There is no auditor for the corporation for now
- The corporation will have an auditor
An auditor is a type of accountant that provides financial audit services to your corporation, which involves reviewing your financial statements to make sure they correctly show the financial health of your company and giving a report to the shareholders each year. Your corporation does not need to have an an auditor. But if you choose not to have an auditor, the shareholders must approve that choice each year.
Great, tell us the name of the auditor firm.*

Get Advice

A few loose ends to tie up and then we're all finished. The corporate registry asks for some details about the person requesting the corporation. We'll include these details when we set up your company.
What's your name? We'll put you down as the authorized representative that requested the incorporation.*
First Last
What's your address?*
Use the business address

Street Address Address Line 2 City Province Postal Code
Is there a phone number we can reach you at if we need to talk to you about your incorporation?
The corporate registry needs an identification number to do your incorporation. Please include a driver license or passport number for your incorporation request.*
The government's corporate registry asks for identification on the application to incorporate a business (e.g. driver's license number or passport number). Rest assured that we keep this information confidential and secure, and we only share it with the corporate registry to complete your incorporation. Please do not include a credit card or social insurance number.
What's your relationship to the corporation?*
Signature (it doesn't have to be perfect).
The corporate registry asks for a signature still (some day they'll replace the scribbled name approach with tech).
Here's what else we recommend for you.
Unanimous Shareholder Agreement. Since you also have investors or shareholders, we recommend you have a Unanimous Shareholder Agreement too. It’s sometimes called the prenup for shareholders and investors because it covers the start of the relationship and the end of it when people want to sell their shares, and everything in between. Think of it as the rule book for the owners of your corporation.
An important note on legal advice.
Made It Legal is very happy to provide this incorporation tool for you. This tool is a software service and not legal advice from a lawyer. To get legal advice, a lawyer needs to talk with you (our website isn't a real lawyer, but maybe with AI it will be someday). Lucky for you, we are a law firm. So we may be able to give you advice depending on where you live and some other rules that lawyers need to follow before taking on a client. If you want to talk about getting some legal advice, we'd love to hear from you. See our terms and conditions for more details.
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Name	Class of Shares	Number of Shares	Price per Share

Name	Class of Shares	Number of Shares	Price Paid per Share

Name	Class and Series (if applicable) (e.g. Class A, Series 1)	Number of Shares	Price Paid per Share	Voting or Non-Voting?

Set Up a Corporation

You've got a great business idea, now let's protect you with a Corporation.

Make sure you're not personally at risk for your business liability.

Bring on investors, other owners, and teams into your business.

Grow your business.

Ready to Set Up your Corporation?

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 1 of 10

Let's get your Corporation started. Here's the cost, including the Made It Legal prices and government fees.

Let's get to know your business.

Let's go over some contact details.

Let's go over your business name.

We'll go over your shares now.

Let's get some more details about your shares.

Simple

Structured

Lets go over your directors.

Tell us about your officers now.

We'll go over a couple financial matters now.

A few loose ends to tie up and then we're all finished. The corporate registry asks for some details about the person requesting the corporation. We'll include these details when we set up your company.

Answer some questions to see what type of business is right for you. Click below to get started.

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Class (if applicable) (e.g. Class A, Class B, etc.)	Voting or Non-Voting?